Kuwait will start this year the first phase of a heavy oil field production, aiming to boost heavy crude output to 430,000 bpd from 60,000 bpd by January, the official Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reports.
Heavy crude oil production from the first phase of an oil field in northern Kuwait, known as "Al-Ritqa" is forecast to hit 11,000 bpd in August this year, KUNA quoted Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) as saying.
The Al-Ritqa oil field project is aimed at boosting heavy crude oil production to 430,000 bpd from 60,000 bpd via multiple production phases by January, Fatama Al-Kanderi, who is responsible for project planning at KOC, said at a recent panel discussion organized by the Kuwaiti oil ministry.
Increasing heavy crude output in northern Kuwait is one of the pillars of the Kuwaiti 2040 oil production strategy, KUNA quoted Al-Kanderi as saying at the panel.
Nearly two years ago, Kuwait announced plans to increase its crude oil production capacity to 4.75 million bpd by 2040, compared to a current capacity of 3.15 million bpd.
In early 2018, the state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) said that it would spend around US$500 billion by 2040 to boost the Arab Gulf state's oil production capacity. KPC's chief executive officer Nizar al-Adsani said in January 2018 that KPC expected to spend US$114 billion over the following five years and another US$394 billion after the five-year period through 2040.
While Kuwait plans to boost its heavy crude oil output and production capacity in the future, it is currently cutting its oil production as part of the OPEC and allies' deal to remove a total of 1.2 million bpd from the market between January and June, in a bid to rebalance the market.
Kuwait-like another Saudi ally, the United Arab Emirates (UAE)-is strictly adhering and even over-delivering in its production reduction under the OPEC+ deal. Kuwait's crude oil output in March stood at 2.709 million bpd, according to OPEC's secondary sources, compared to a 2.724-million-bpd cap under the deal.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More